Every year, it seems, there’s one artist who captures the popular imagination and becomes the de facto singer of choice at the American Idol auditions. It’s usually someone popular and it’s usually someone that no Idol wannabe, not even the eventual winner, can match for high notes.
This year, that singer was Celine Dion. Every time a would-be Idol walked in the door and answered the question, “What are you going to sing?” with, “Power of Love/I’m Your Angel/fill-in-the-blank by Celine Dion,” you could practically see Simon Cowell’s eye-roll before it happened.
Of course, Dion is the flavour of the moment.
Tonight, in Dion’s first concert since wrapping her five-year run in Sin City, Dion serenades the crowd at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles with some of her greatest hits, including The Power of Love, River Deep Mountain High and, from her new album, Taking Chances.
Tonight’s concert special is called Celine Dion: That’s Just the Woman in Me, and as the title suggests, it’s a little more intimate than the usual chest-thumping arena show. Dion even takes time to answer questions from the audience, though it’s a safe bet the questions won’t get too pushy. There’s only so much ground that can be covered in an hour, after all. 9 p.m., CTV, CBS
Nip/Tuck, FX’s cutting-edge cable drama that is easy to admire but hard to like, settles into its regular Friday home after debuting on a Sunday.
Tonight’s episode, the third of Nip/Tuck’s fifth and most recent season — 14 episodes will air in all — first aired on FX in November, and is being shown here for the first time.
Dr. Sean (Dylan Walsh) fends off the increasingly heated advances of Eden Lord (AnnaLynne McCord), while juggling Julia’s (Joely Richardson) emotional needs. Nip/Tuck has always been something of a high-wire act. It’s clever and well-written, but it might just be one of the most emotionally violent dramas on TV. Few programs are more sexually explicit, or disturbing, which makes it all the more remarkable that it is airing on a mainstream, mass-audience broadcast network. 10 p.m., CTV
Three to see:
- Wedding bells, they are a-ringin’ on a two-hour outing of Las Vegas that might be the five-year-old series’ last. It isn’t all roses and tiaras, however. This is a wedding Vegas-style, which means Danny (Josh Duhamel) and Piper (Camille Guaty) are taken hostage in an art heist gone wrong — don’t they always? — and before it’s over, one of the cast regulars is being fitted for a funeral suit. Bummer. 9 p.m., Global, NBC
- Turner Classic Movies continues its month-long salute to Oscar with the offbeat 1970 western Little Big Man, in which Salish Chief Dan George landed a supporting-actor Oscar nomination. A classy performance in a classic film. 5 p.m., TCM
- A beauty queen, Cassandra Whitehead tests her wits against 100 trivia buffs in tonight’s pop culture-themed 1 vs. 100. The supposed pop culture experts include Ross the Intern from The Tonight Show, Richard Rubin from Beauty and the Geek and a trio of Playboy Playmates. 8 p.m., E!, NBC
Tags: 5,
8,
episode,
season,
wire